Characteristics of the Hindi language in AX Semantics
Fundamentals
In Hindi, you need to know the case, number, and gender of a noun to form the accompanying adjectives, determiners, numerals, and pronouns correctly.
Hindi has two genders for nouns: masculine and feminine. There are also two numbers: singular and plural. Additionally, Hindi has three cases for nouns.
| grammatical name | values | examples |
|---|---|---|
| number | singular | पुरानी कार [puraanee kaar] (old car) |
| plural | पुरानी कारें [puraanee kaaren] (old cars) | |
| gender | masculine | बूढ़ा डॉक्ट [boodha dokt] (old doctor) |
| feminine | बूढ़ी लेडी [boodhee ledee] (old lady) | |
| case (noun) | direct | बच्चा [bachcha] (the child) |
| oblique | मैं उस बच्चे से बात करता हूँ। [main us bachche se baat karata hoon] (I talk to the child.) | |
| vocative | ओ बच्चे [o bachche] (Hey, child!) | |
| adjectives (noun) | before noun | एक लाल सेब [ek laal seb] (a red apple) |
| verb tenses | present | वह पढ़ता है [vah padhata hai] (he reads) |
| past | वह पढ़ता था [vah padhata tha] (he read) |
The standard order of a noun phrase in Hindi is the following:
determiner + numeral + adjective + noun + preposition
See for example:
इन तीन लोकप्रिय गायकों के बारे में
[in teen lokapriy gaayakon ke baare mein]
these three popular singers about
DET NUM ADJ NOUN PREP
"about these three popular singers"
Lexicon
Nouns
Hindi nouns are inflected for case and number. Nouns should be added to the lexicon with their grammatical gender if they do not inflect regularly.
Lexicon entries for nouns may also be necessary for inflecting determiners, adjectives, numerals, and pronouns correctly. They are omitted, if a lexicon entry is required, but missing.
Examples
The basic lexicon entry for बच्चा [baccā] (child) contains:
- gender: masculine
- inflection table for case and number:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Direct | बच्चा [bachcha] | बच्चे [bachche] |
| Oblique | बच्चे [bachche] | बच्चों [bachchon] |
| Vocative | बच्चे [bachche] | बच्चो [bachcho] |
Adjectives
In the lexicon, the inflection table encodes case, number, and gender. For adjective position, "before noun" is the default.
Verbs
Hindi verbs inflect for gender, number, person, and tense. The most common verbs are encoded in our software. If a verb inflects incorrectly, you should add it to the lexicon.
Container settings
Determiner
The AX NLG platform supports the following determiners for Hindi: demonstratives (proximal + distal) and possessives.
Numerals
Hindi numerals have their own digits (e.g., 1=१), which are distinct from the Arabic numerals 0-9. The AX NLG platform still supports Arabic numerals for Hindi. The noun will automatically agree with the numeral number when a numeral variable is used. Four types of numerals are possible on the AX NLG platform: cardinal, cardinal as digit, ordinal, and ordinal as digit.
| cardinal | ordinal | |
|---|---|---|
| text | नौ दिन [nau din] (nine days) | नौवां दिन [nauvaan din] (the ninth day) |
| digit | 9 दिन [9 din] (9 days) | 9. दिन [9. din] (the 9th day) |
For Hindi, both cardinal and ordinal numerals are written out until 20 on the platform, otherwise (above 20) the output is in digit form. Take cardinal numerals for example:
बीस कारें
[bees kaaren]
(twenty cars)
vs.
21 कारें
[21 kaaren]
(21 cars)